A well-known apparatus for the separation of solids from a solids-fluid mixture is a cyclone wherein a solids-fluid mixture is entered horizontally and tangentially into a vertical cylindrical body from which the fluid is discharged at the top whereas solids are discharged from the bottom section of the cyclone. Horizontal cyclones are also known, in which the solids-fluid mixture enter tangentially into a horizontal cylindrical body from which the fluid is discharged via a horizontal pipe usually coaxial to the horizontal body of the cyclone, and the solids are discharged via a pipe at an end of the body opposite to the end at which the solids-fluid mixture is taken in.
From EP-A No. 0 206 399 an apparatus is known which comprises a housing with at least a domed shaped upper section, with an upwardly directed inlet for the solids-fluid mixture, a downwardly directed solids outlet and fluid outlets which are at a central part of the housing and substantially horizontal.
The apparatus according to EP-A 0 206 399 has the advantage over a cyclone-type of apparatus that the pressure drop in the apparatus is reduced and that the formation of dead spots is avoided. As to the performance of the apparatus, some improvements are possible.
From the example in the above European application it is apparent that the efficiency of the separation is about 95%. It would be advantageous if it were possible to have an apparatus with an even higher efficiency at one's disposal. Further, the apparatus tends to be rather complicated from a constructional point of view, and the accessibility to the apparatus, when it is positioned in e.g. a catalytic cracking reactor, tends to be troublesome.